Perry vs. coyote: Critics take aim at pistol packing

PERRY VS. COYOTE

Published 5:30 am, Wednesday, April 28, 2010

AUSTIN — City residents reported seeing 755 coyotes in Austin since January 2009, but Gov. Rick Perry is the only person known to have shot and killed one inside the city limits.

While there are city ordinances against discharging firearms and hunting in the city limits, Austin police say Perry's action while jogging would not be a crime because it was in self-defense.

The incident prompted one wildlife preservation group to mock Perry's manliness for killing a “song dog” that could have easily been scared away. And a handgun control group questioned whether it was safe for Perry to jog with a handgun in his belt and then fire it in a city where other people may be on the trails.

One Austin resident who had her cocker spaniel attacked by a coyote in the central city several years ago said she had serious questions about why Perry was jogging while armed.

“This is one time I'd be on the coyote's side. I'm not a Rick Perry fan,” said Nancy Williams. “Whoever heard of someone jogging with a gun? It sounds off to me.”

Williams said city trapping programs have been effective in removing aggressive coyotes from her neighborhood.

Perry told the Associated Press this week that he was jogging near his home in the sparsely populated and heavily wooded hills of a gated community in west Austin in February when he encountered a coyote. Perry said that because the coyote was acting threatening toward him and his daughter's Labrador retriever, he pulled a .380 pistol with a laser sight from a belt on his jogging suit and shot the coyote dead. He told the reporter he carries the gun when jogging because he is afraid of snakes.

“Don't attack my dog or you might get shot … if you're a coyote,” the AP quoted the governor as saying.

Kay Aielli's Chihauhuas, Thor and Mr. Jingles, were carried off into Shoal Creek by coyotes one night about three years ago. But the Austinite said she would not have fired a gun to save them for fear of wounding someone.

“I'm sure the governor has more acreage than I have, but if you're in a gated community you might be endangering other people who are out in their high-dollar jogging clothes,” Aielli said.

I feel like not many people go out armed, especially not for rattlesnakes in February. I think maybe he went out to shoot a coyote,” she said.

Self-defense exception

Austin has ordinances against discharging firearms within the city limits or hunting fur-bearing animals such as coyotes. But police spokesman Sgt. Keith Bazzle said Perry's actions would not be a violation of the firearms ordinance because the incident was “self-defense.”

Perry spokesman Mark Miner also cited a state law that allows someone to kill a coyote if it is threatening a person, livestock or a domestic animal.

Coyotes are such a problem in Austin that the city keeps statistics on them. A trapping program is used to capture and euthanize coyotes that eat small pets or threaten people.

There were 19 reports of coyotes in Perry's ZIP code between January and March, but none involved threatening activities or attacks on domestic animals. In the entire city, there were only five reports of aggressive coyotes.

Texas Parks and Wildlife three years ago issued a release advising urban dwellers who encounter coyotes to scare them off by shouting or throwing something at them.

Concern for other people

WildEarth Guardians, a wildlife protection group in Denver, offered to pay for a class in assertiveness training for Perry because of his “slaying of a song dog.” The group also offered the governor an alternative to the pistol.

“With all due respect to his manhood, 90-pound women in tennis shoes effectively scare 30-pound coyotes away with a sharp shout,” said group spokeswoman Wendy Keef­over-Ring in a news release. “We're sending Governor Perry a plastic whistle so he can leave his gun at home.”

Miner responded, “With a name like that (WildEarth Guardians) we're pleased that they're against us.”

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Perry as a licensed concealed handgun holder had a right to carry the gun. But he questioned the wisdom of jogging with a firearm and firing it where other people live.

“If you miss, those bullets can hit someone other than the coyote,” Helmke said.

Miner said the governor was carrying the gun legally and fired only when he felt threatened by the coyote.

“He was protecting a family pet, and he would do it again,” Miner said.